Tag Archives: A. Flores

by Craig Vanderslice | August 7, 2022 · 10:21 am

PDR and German Engineered Cigars

Welcome to post number 1601! I’m not sure if that’s a milestone, but I noticed that I had made 1600 posts over the course of the last 13 years (officially at the end of the month, but close enough!), and that seemed like something worth mentioning. That’s 123 posts per year, or 10 per month. I know it’s not Coop or Halfwheel, but I think it must show some level of dedication, right? Anyway, naturally I celebrated by smoking some cigars. As I write this I’m smoking a PDR El Criollito (pronunciation tips gladly accepted). This 5″ x 54 Robusto has an Ecuador Criollo 98 wrapper, San Andrés binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan Criollo 98 fillers. I’ll preface this by saying that I’m not the biggest Criollo fan. This cigar, however, is darned tasty. It’s a little nutty, but mostly just good, well cared for tobacco. I also don’t normally smoke in the mornings, but this is going very nicely with coffee. I’m kinda digging it.

I also smoked PDR’s Connecticut Valley Reserve Azul Churchill again this week. This is an interesting cigar. It has a Connecticut Broadleaf Rosado wrapper, Binder from Jalapa and Dominican Corojo, Condega, Nicaragua Criollo fillers. More Criollo. Obviously the wrapper isn’t fermented to maduro like we are used to with Broadleaf, so it’s not quite a sweet as usual, but still has some sweetness, with some drying sensation on the palate. It still was quite good. By the way, the band is gorgeous on this cigar, not that that makes a huge difference. The construction was exceptional, it burned with a flat ember that always amazes me, getting all the fillers to burn as the exact same rate is impressive.

Also this week I sampled a couple vitolas in the German Engineered Cigars Raumzeit line. This is what they have to say about it on their website:

Your first impression of RAUMZEIT is characterized by a light, silky, fragrant wrapper.

Its smoke combines aromas of nuts, cream, honey, stardust, and malt with white pepper, minerals, cloves, flying saucer, and nutmeg into a wondrously sweet and complex experience.

Body: light to medium

Wrapper: Nicaragua – Connecticut

Binder: Indonesia – Sumatra

Filler: Nicaragua -Jalapa & Dominican Republic – Piloto

First, “Raumzeit” is German for “Spacetime”. I wasn’t really much of a fan of the flavor of these, I found them rather floral. Perhaps is was just too complex for my palate. I did note that the construction on these was excellent, and the 3½” x 44 Half Corona was a bit more intense than the 5″ x 54 Robusto. Perhaps I just don’t care for stardust and flying saucer flavors, I guess, but if you like cigars that I don’t care for, these would probably be a great option to try. I didn’t get a chance to meet the German Engineered Cigars guys at the PCA show, they were busy when I walked by and I didn’t get back to them. I’ll make a point of it if we re in the same place at the same time again.

That’ll do it for today. Next weekend I’ll be going to the Connecticut Barnsmoker (to make up for missing the PA). Looking forward to seeing everyone there. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as A. Flores, cigar, cigars, Connecticut Valley Reserve Azul, El Criollito, German, PDR, Raumzeit

by CigarCraig | February 18, 2015 · 10:33 pm

My Father Connecticut, Oliva Orchant, a Little PDR, and a Toraño

Sunday afternoon I took the two mile trip to the cigar shop since it was bitterly cold and windy. I finally smoked the My Father Connecticut Toro. This is a 6½” x 54 Ecuador wrapped beauty is made from tobacco grown on the Garcia’s farms in Nicaragua (except the wrapper) and cut and lit nicely. I was quite impressed with everything about this cigar. It burned perfectly, had a great draw and gave me a nice hour and a half or so of relaxation. I have been spending more time at this shop, but still haven’t wandered into the Montecristo Lounge, I just sat out in the front in a leather chair watching some golf, perusing some magazines and hanging out. I know the former owner, who still works there, but he wasn’t there. This Connecticut shade wrapped cigar is a winner, great smoking experience.

Monday was another cold night, so I went with a smaller cigar, the “Skinny” corona in Mitchell Orchant’s Oliva Orchant Seleccion. I smoked the 4″ x 60 Chubby a couple weeks ago and really enjoyed it. This 5″ x 43 corona was excellent, although different from the Chubby. The flavor was more direct, less smooth and mellow than the larger ring. Obviously the wrapper to filler ratio makes a very big difference, and I’m very interested in trying the robusto in this line to see if it falls in the middle. I love all cigars, sometimes I like the sharper, more focussed flavors of a smaller ring gauge, other times I enjoy larger rings, they are generally a little cooler. Mostly I like a longer smoke though, as every cigar is mini vacation. It’s a shame these aren’t available on this side of the pond, I’m finding them to be a bit more refined than the already pretty refined Oliva Serie V.

Tuesday I opted for a really short smoke, the A. Flores Gran Reserva Half Corona, a 2006 Dominican Corojo wrapped little flavor bomb from PDR Cigars. It has Dominican Corojo and Nicaraguan Habano filler, Dominican binder, and packs a lot of flavor into a 3½” x 46 cigar. This is a great half hour smoke, and gives a big cigar experience in a small package. These are available in neat tins that are very handy, and are really delicious little cigars. Perfect for a frigid and busy evening.

We’ve been furnace shopping, as ours is failing, and finally came to a decision. The new furnace and water heater goes in Friday. To celebrate I grabbed a favorite, the Toraño Exodus 1959 50 Year, with the copper colored bands. This tasty 5″ x 50 robusto has a dark Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper, Honduran binder and Nicaraguan fillers. I really love the flavor of this cigar, it has a unique toasty cocoa flavor that is very appealing. this one has been in the humidor for a while, and I hope that the change in ownership doesn’t change the flavor of this smoke. This is probably my favorite in the Exodus series.

That’s it for now, it’s been a wild week with the furnace and all. Fortunately we are getting it replaced before it fails completely, it’s really the wrong time of year fro that nonsense, and we’ve been unhappy with the hot water since we moved in. I really don’t want the water heater failing, that tends to get messy and we just had new carpet (and walls) in the room adjacent to the room with all the mechanicals. We are REALLY looking forward to spring! That’s it for now, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as A. Flores, CGars Ltd, cigar, cigars, My Father, PDR, Toraño

by CigarCraig | March 12, 2014 · 5:17 pm

Back to Cigars! A La Sirena, a Gurkha and a Little PDR

I got that whole IPCPR thing off my chest last time, thanks to everyone who weighed in in the comments. I have one more little rant to get out of the way. This is something that’s been bothering me for a while, and, as a public service announcement, I’d like to present my views, and it will only piss off those who have an over inflated opinion of themselves! I listen to a lot of cigar podcasts and read a lot of blogs, as I’m sure you all do too. I am in no way shape or form a cigar expert, and no other cigar bloggers or podcasters are either! I constantly hear mis-information and, maybe worse, opinion related as fact. The experts are the people that work the fields and curing barns, blend and manufacture cigars. For instance, when someone states with authority regarding an Oliva cigar that they have “a gazillion farms in Central America”, they are wrong and don’t know that there is a difference between Oliva Cigar Co. and Oliva Tobacco Co.. I see and hear this sort of silliness all the time and it annoys me because I figure some readers/listeners are taking this as gospel. I would also contend that there are no Cuban Cigar experts in the US, we are like fish out of water when it comes to Havanas, they’ve been illegal to buy for 50 years. If you want a Cuban cigar expert, you will have to go outside of US borders. Talk to my friend Mitchell Orchant of C.Gars Ltd. in the UK, I would categorize him as an expert on all things Havana, and I’d be dissapointed if he didn’t argue that fact. Don’t believe everything you read or hear, unless it comes from Jose Blanco or someone of that ilk! Enough of my ranting, now you kids get the hell off my lawn!

Sunday was a really nice, late winter day. It’s the first day of Daylight Savings Time, which they should just leave as Standard time, in my opinion! I much prefer longer evenings to earlier mornings. Anyway, the day called for a large cigar and a long walk. I recently came into possession of some rather limited La Sirena Dubloons, I’ve been looking for an excuse to fire one up and this was it. Unlike the other sizes in the La Sirena line which have a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper (yum), this cigar has the same Habana Oscuro wrapper found on the La Sirena A (another I have in the humidor that I ‘m waiting for an appropriate time to smoke). The cigar is a beautiful 7¼” x 56 Salamone, or enormous perfecto, shaped cigar. This cigar smoked perfectly, and was loaded with dark, rich flavors. I smoked this for the better part of two hours and was left quite sated. If you run across this vitola, give it a shot, it’s a big ol’ tasty treat.

Monday I celebrated taking my evening walk in the daylight by smoking a Gurkha Seduction which has been tempting from the humidor since I received it as an IPCPR sample at the 2012 trade show. I’ve smoked plenty of the robustos and love them, this was my first in the toro size. This is a great tasting cigar, the Habano wrapper is just delicious. Gurkha’s really getting their stuff together, I think. I avoided them for a while just because their product offering was so large and confusing, but they are coming out with some really tasty cigars in this Seduction, the Ghost and the Cellar Reserve (the maduro LE especially). Somewhere around here I have a five fingered Gurkha tin case with five cigars in it. I’ll have to dig that out one of these days. It was a Groupon deal which made paying $10 per cigar seem like a good idea (it was a gift, which I’m very thankful for!) They seem to have tamed down the over the top marketing too. They have a huge and loyal following, just watch the next time I have a Gurkha contest.

Tuesday evening my wife an I had an event to go to so I only had a half hour or so to get my walk and cigar in. Fortunately, I had received a sample tin of the A. Flores Gran Reserva Half Coronas from PDR Cigars. I’ve enjoyed the Gran Reserva line in the past, so I was excited for an opportunity to smoke this little guy. This is a 3½” x 46 cedar wrapped cigar with a Dominican Corojo wrappper and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. It’s fortunate that I only had a short amount of time, or I would be tempted to chain smoke the entire tin of five of these decadent and diminutive beauties. These come in a pocket friendly tin (although not sealed, so take care not to visit too arid or swampy places). Good things sometimes do come in small packages (I’ve been telling this to my……oh, nevermind…..). Thank you to PDR Cigars for the samples.